In thinking about the practical and philosophical threats to America’s principles and way of life, I thought it might be useful to look back to a notable American’s description of such threats in an earlier era. And since I come out of Claremont, you won’t be surprised that the person whose thoughts I chose to examine is Abraham Lincoln.
When Lincoln addressed the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois, in January 1838, it was at a key moment in our history. It was just over 18 months after James Madison, the last surviving Constitutional Convention delegate, had died. This left the young country to fend for itself with no more living assistance from our true Greatest Generation, the one that forged a new nation.
As he surveyed the political scene 50 years after the 1788 ratification of the Constitution, Lincoln expressed concern for “increasing disregard for law.” He emphasized the importance of “civil and religious liberty,” which he characterized as the proper object of government and as “the noblest of cause[s].”
And he warned that if we were to be destroyed, it would not be from without, but rather from within, declaring, “As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
Lincoln warned that American citizens’ creeping disregard for the Constitution and laws risked exposing the nation to threats from talented but unscrupulous men who burn with ambition and would gladly tear down the handiwork of our founders to satisfy their dark desire for distinction. Our only protection against such men, whom Lincoln warns will inevitably come, are the Constitution and laws. If we weaken these legal protections, he warns, when we turn around and see that they are required, they will no longer be there to save us. We will lose our republic, and with it our civil and religious liberty. […]
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